Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
April 23, 2005
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Nicole Kidman sits in a team's war room during the NFL draft.

Four new films arrived in theaters Friday in an attempt to add some oomph to the box office, but only one made any noise of note as a sluggish April continues.

The Interpreter

The Nicole Kidman/Sean Penn political thriller earned a star-powered $7.5 million Friday, easily taking the top spot. With not a whole lot else out there to serve older moviegoers, look for a better-than-average internal multiplier. We'll give it a 3.2 and a $24 million weekend.

A Lot Like Love

Ashton Kutcher's latest offering took in $3.0 million Friday, a disappointing figure for the romantic comedy. We foolishly hold onto hope that this means no more lead roles for Demi Moore's boy toy. We'll give A Lot Like Love a 2.9 multiplier for an unimpressive $8.7 million weekend.

Kung Fu Hustle

Sony Pictures Classics' import Kung Fu Hustle earned $2.3 million on 2,500 screens. BOP's Chris Hyde is disappointed in all of you. We applaud SPC's wide release of the film, but it may have expanded too much too soon. Figure a $7.1 million weekend and a cult following.

King's Ransom

The less said the better about this one, so we'll just go with this: $700,000 Friday, $1.8 million weekend, and a chance it's not in the top ten when weekend estimates are released.

Notable Holdovers

The Amityville Horror falls 48.7% from last Friday, which is way better than expected. With its weak multiplier last weekend, figure an overall weekend decline of around 45%, which should be cause for celebration over at MGM.